


Friendly Fire

by prairiecrow



Series: What Are Friends For? [2]
Category: Knight Rider (1982)
Genre: Arguing, Battle, Coming Out, Declarations Of Love, M/M, Possessive Behavior, Protectiveness, Secret Relationship, Self-Sacrifice, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-13
Updated: 2012-12-13
Packaged: 2017-11-21 00:11:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/591259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prairiecrow/pseuds/prairiecrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael and KITT are both almost killed, but it's their carefully maintained secrecy that ends up taking a critical hit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [What Are Friends For?](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/14368) by Anax. 



He woke to a miserable throbbing pain in his skull, and thought: _I passed out for a couple of seconds there._ The memories that came rapidly back online supplied the how: racing through the desert in pursuit of a stolen Zephyr military helicopter, just about to shift KITT into SPM… and then a blaze of light streaking through the sky to meet them, and a cataclysmic flash… the car flipping into the air, tumbling spoiler over hood, again and again… 

… and now they'd finally come to a halt. He was hanging upside down in his safety harness, and he could feel that the passive laser restraint system was offline. He could hear the car's wheels spinning fitfully above him — no, not all the wheels. Only the front two. Something had disabled KITT's drive train — 

— and when he opened his eyes, he saw exactly what had happened. The firelight streaming in through what should have been the floor of the automobile but was now a shattered gaping hole told the story: whatever had hit them, the resulting explosion had ripped right through KITT's MBS underbelly and into the passenger compartment. With that piece of information in place Michael could now identify elements of sensation from his own body, nicks and cuts from flying bits of shrapnel that had torn through his jeans and his turtleneck shirt, and trickles of blood running down his skin. And heat. The car above him was on fire, thin smoke already beginning to trickle into its cabin.  

 _"M-ch-l—"_ A burst of harsh static from the dashboard, every syllable slightly slurred, and the sound of KITT's terrible injury sent his heart plummeting in a downward spiral. _"G-t out! Th-y're — powering -p — to f-re ag—"_  

Even with parts of the message missing he knew what KITT was telling him to do: crawl out of the immobilized car and run like hell before another missile hit. But the AI couldn't run anymore — not without help, which Michael immediately started to provide. It was hard to think of the proper location of elements of the car's interior that were out of his current line of sight, especially with the whole interior tilted nearly one hundred and fifty degrees, but he groped under the lower curve of the dashboard with one hand nonetheless. 

 _"Michael!"_ KITT protested — but Michael kept feeling around, and after five full seconds found the release he was looking for. He pressed it hard, praying it hadn't been disabled, and both felt and heard a _click_ as the CPU access housing came loose. " _M-chael, y-ve got t—_ " 

"Not without you." He pried the housing free — it took a couple of hard jerks because the panel had been bent by the force of the explosion — and let it fall past him, unheeded. 

 _"D-n't be r-dic—"_  

"KITT, you're distracting me." Reaching inside now, groping for the clamps that held the CPU in place. Precious seconds running past, every tick of time bringing another shot nearer — and this time, with KITT's shell so catastrophically breached, the energy of the blast would tear into the robot's interior and through everything still inside.  

His lover's body was a write-off, but his lover's mind could still be saved. If he acted fast. If their enemies didn't —  

 _"No!"_ It was a stern command now, a tone that KITT had never used with him outside of their sexual games, full of nearly human urgency. _"R-n! S-ve y-rs—"_  

"Not without you," Michael repeated savagely. Time was running out so fast, and this might be the end. He couldn't afford to dance around the truth. "I love you, and I'm not leaving you behind!" 

 _"Pl-se,"_ KITT moaned helplessly, and the engine tried to turn over, sending ragged vibrations through what was left of the car. _"M-ch-l,_ ** _no…_** _"_  

He ignored his partner, even though the broken pleas tore open his heart as he found each clamp blind and opened it — one, two, three, four, and finally disconnecting the data ribbon that connected the CPU to the rest of the car's systems, rendering KITT blind and mute mid-word. Then he gripped the CPU case itself and pulled it out of the dashboard, setting it carefully aside on the passenger side roof while he freed himself from his seatbelt and half-sprawled gracelessly out of his seat. As soon as his skull changed orientation the headache ramped up to an eleven, blurring his vision with surging waves of red. 

Death was coming for them — it might be only a heartbeat away, or less. Heart pounding, he scooped up KITT's brain and crouched on his knees, gripping the passenger side door latch and applying pressure to trigger it mechanically, pushing with his shoulders as he did so. The door creaked open with a sulky groan and he scrambled through the narrow opening, almost falling flat on his face in the oil-streaked and torn sand, the pain in his skull shooting all the way down his spine and exploding through his legs and arms.  

 _Michael!_ KITT was disembodied, but he could nevertheless hear the AI's voice screaming in his head: **_Run!_** And he obeyed, staggering to his feet and stumbling away from the remains of the Knight Industry Two Thousand's robotic body as fast as he could, which didn't seem very fast at all. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion: his own movements, the flare and flicker of fire from the burning vehicle, a spot of light in the sky growing too swiftly nearer. He concentrated on the only thing that really mattered: keeping tight hold of KITT's CPU, shielding it with the curve of his own body. It felt almost feverish against his chest, the warmth of it easily penetrating his shirt in the chill of the desert night.  

He barely had time to think about what a curious association that was — injury, fever, computer components — before the darkness exploded again, picking him up and sending him tumbling and skidding across the sandy terrain. When he finally came to a stop, his body sending him copious new signals of damage, KITT was still in his arms. Still intact. Still safe. 

He curled himself around it, knowing that he had to get up and keep going. 

In a minute. 

He closed his eyes, and for a little while the whole world slipped painlessly away again. 

********************************* 

He woke again to blessed quiet, a soft pillow under his head, and warm blankets laid over his supine body. For a timeless interval he just breathed, taking stock of physical sensations: his left forearm was bandaged, likewise his right foot, but other than that he felt almost clear of pain, aside from a generalized sense of muscular ache. What…?

Then memory flooded back again, and his eyes flew open to a darkened room lit only by a warm muted light at the bedside. "KITT!" he gasped, struggling reflexively to sit up, his heart pounding with dread. 

That provoked a hammer blow of muscle contractions in his lower back — and a hand laid to his right shoulder. "Michael!" Devon's voice, softly soothing. "There's no need to worry — he's quite safe. Bonnie's working on him even as we speak." 

The wave of relief laid Michael flat on the mattress again. He closed his eyes again, his head faintly swimming. "What the… Devon, what the hell happened out there?" 

"That's what we're trying to figure out," was the grim response. "But you were both recovered more or less in one piece, except for KITT's body, of course." 

"Yeah… whatever they used, it tore through the MBS like it was tissue paper." 

"Rest assured we're not sending you out there again until we have more data to better prepare you for what you'll be facing." 

The pain in his back was already beginning to fade, his heart rate was slowing again. Opening his eyes, he turned them toward the head of FLAG, who was regarding him solemnly from a chair beside the bed. "He's really okay?" 

"We found you unconscious, sheltering him with your own body." Devon's clear blue eyes met his in a long silent gaze, full of leonine authority. "Michael… we downloaded your last conversation with him, while you were freeing his CPU from the car. I believe we need talk, you and I." 

 _Oh God._ He turned his face away, staring up at the cream-coloured ceiling of his own bedroom, his jaw working as he braced himself for impact. "There's nothing to talk about." 

"Is it true?" 

"That I love him?" He looked to Devon again, letting the unspoken statement spin out between them, then back at the ceiling again. 

After a moment Devon nodded. And sighed. "This isn't unexpected, Michael. KITT was designed to conform himself to you in every way, to become your perfect partner in every respect. But I'd always assumed that your orientation was exclusively heterosexual. If I'd realized —" 

"It _is_ exclusively heterosexual." He scanned the swirls of plaster on the ceiling, noticing the way some swooped one way, and others swooped in a reverse pattern. "Except when it comes to him. Is that a problem?" 

"Not necessarily." The older man's voice was gentle, but firm. "Does it prevent you from piloting him into dangerous situations where he might be damaged? Does it distract you from carrying out Foundation business?" 

"No, and no." He returned his gaze to those unwavering blue eyes. "I know my job, Devon, and I'm damned good at it. And KITT knows his. We do what we have to do — no exceptions." 

After a moment Devon nodded again. "I'm glad to hear it. Because as soon as we've reconstructed his body and reinstalled him, with a few modifications, you'll be going back out into the field again. Fractal Wave is still on the loose, and they've stolen another top secret piece of military technology." 

The prospect was sobering. "What was it this time?" 

"Later." He reached out and laid his right hand on Michael's right shoulder again, the pressure of his fingers brief but warm, before rising from his seat. "Right now you need your rest. I'll tell KITT you're awake and doing well. I'm sure he'll be pleased to hear it." 

After he'd taken his leave Michael stared up at the ceiling again for a long time, reflecting that allies sometimes lurked in the most unexpected places.  


	2. Chapter 2

Forty-seven hours later Michael stepped into the mansion's cavernous main robotics lab, walking with a slight limp and still bandaged under his jacket and jeans, but no longer so sore that being vertical and moving was torture. The vast space was dark except for one brightly lit corner, where the mostly reconstructed hull of the Knight Industries Two Thousand sat gleaming with its usual profound ebony lustre. The sight of it immediately lifted Michael's spirits, a reflexive soaring sensation of admiration and possessiveness and love, and he came down the stairs and crossed the concrete floor with a spring in his step and a song in his heart. 

 _"Michael!"_ KITT's greeting as he approached the periphery of the light was joyous, but he couldn't determine exactly where it was coming from in the echoing space of the lab.  

"Hey, buddy." He entered the lit bay slowly, looking around until his eyes fell on a likely-looking cluster of equipment on one of the desks across the car from where Bonnie sat at a work station studying readouts on a large screen — and sure enough, buried in the tangle of technology was KITT's black box. "How you doing?" 

 _"Just dandy,"_ KITT replied dryly, _"aside from being trapped in this tiny space with no way to get out."_  

Bonnie responded without glancing round from her work station, sounding the very soul of professionalism: "I'll have you back inside the car within the next few hours, KITT. You'll just have to be patient." 

"You'd better listen to her," Michael grinned, stopping in front of KITT's temporary home and leaning one hand on the desk, studying the arrangement that currently cradled his partner's brain without understanding the purpose of any of it. "I think she knows what she's talking about." 

 _"I_ ** _know_** _she knows what she's talking about."_ A significant pause, and one element of the mechanical jumble moved a fraction of an inch: a small glowing red lens, orienting itself to Michael's face. More quietly KITT stated: _"You still look pale. Should you really be out of bed?"_  

Michael waved his free hand dismissively. "Don't worry, the doctors gave me a clean bill of health." Which wasn't strictly true given the number of bruises and contusions he still sported, but in KITT's current state Michael highly doubted that the AI could check.  

 _"Really?"_ KITT sounded deeply skeptical. _"With that limp? I'll have to have a word or two with Devon about the quality of his medical personnel."_  

His grin widened. "Yeah, well… you're not looking so hot yourself, in case you hadn't noticed." 

 _"I'm looking a lot better than I have any right to, thanks to you. And I still haven't forgiven you for acting in such a reckless and foolhardy —"_  

"KITT…" He glanced at Bonnie, saw only the back of her head as she apparently paid attention only to the code on her screen, and decided to go for broke. "I couldn't have left you behind to die. You know that. I would've rather died myself." 

 _"Which you very nearly did,"_ the AI scolded.  

He was just opening his mouth to reply when Bonnie spoke up again, still in that clipped businesslike tone. "KITT, I'm going to have to take you offline to fine tune the process flow into your Lambda circuit." 

 _"Now?"_ His surprise was clear. _"But, that procedure isn't scheduled for another —"_  

"I'm picking up feedback in the Delta array that could become a problem if I don't perform the tuning now." 

 _"Of course, Bonnie."_ The change in KITT's focus back to his driver was obvious in his shift in vocal tone, from brisk to soft, from crisp to intimate. _"I'll see you later, Michael."_  

"See you on the other side," Michael smiled, and touched the lens lightly with his right index fingertip. Bonnie issued a clicking set of keyboard commands and the crimson light faded to grey, signalling KITT's descent into unconsciousness.  

 _Here it comes._ He drew a slow breath and turned in place to face Bonnie — who had indeed spun in her chair and risen to her feet, her eyes ablaze with outrage that would have done a mother grizzly bear proud. 

"Just what the hell did you think you were _doing?_ " she demanded hotly, crossing the floor with savage strides to stand at the soulless car's gleaming windshield. 

Michael approached her more cautiously from the other side, holding up both hands. "Bonnie, I know you're mad, but —" 

"You're damned right I'm angry!" The intensity of that flash of rage, reflected in bulletproof glass, stopped him in his tracks. "I picked up KITT's triple encoding of his own data packets on the first deep diagnostic scan, and when I was finally able to decode them — Michael, how _could_ you?" 

His hands came up again. "Hey, in case you didn't notice, it was _his_ idea just as much as it was —" 

"That's no excuse!" She looked like she was ready to go up in a burst of flame — or a thermonuclear explosion, absolutely glorious in her fury. "You're the one he looks to, you could have put a stop to it at any time! But you didn't! Oh no, not Michael Knight, the man who thinks with his dick!" 

Michael could feel his shoulders stiffening with answering anger: he'd come here prepared to defend himself, aware that Bonnie had seen the record of his declaration of devotion when he'd thought that he and KITT were both going to die, but… "You think that's all this is? Well, you'd better look a whole lot closer, because I think you just went and missed the whole point!" 

"What point?" she demanded, fists actually clenching at her sides. "The one where you used him for your own selfish pleasure? The one where —" 

"He was enjoying himself too. A _lot_." Realization dawned, and with it fury of his own, dropping his voice to a hoarse whisper: "You honestly think I'd do that to him? That I'd…" The words stuck in his throat, too appalling, too… obscene, to even give voice. 

"I don't know what to think anymore!" She gestured past him, toward KITT's brain. "But I know what I saw. I wanted to erase all memory traces of what's been going on between the two of you, but —" 

His heart sank — then reared up like a lion, teeth bared and claws extended, ready to leap to the defence of what was _his._ Its growl infused his voice: "But?" 

"Devon refused to allow it." Her tone shifted to disbelief. "He thinks that KITT's entitled to those memories —" 

"— and that I'm entitled to KITT." Evidently Devon had gone one step further than Michael would have anticipated, and he felt a surge of fierce gratitude. "Well, he's right. Y'know, you talk a good game about wanting to take care of KITT, but then you tell me you're willing to do something like that to him? Taking away parts of his mind?" 

It was a charge that did nothing to improve her temper. "This is exactly what I meant every time I've called you willfully ignorant! You don't understand that KITT is a finely calibrated machine, perfectly tuned to operate in a specific way. What you did to him could have sent him into a behavioural tailspin!" 

"But it didn't." He forced himself to speak calmly, to meet her accusing gaze squarely. "He faces all kinds of experiences out there on the road every day, and some pretty shitty things have happened to him in the course of his life —" 

"Most of them due to you —" she countered. 

"— but he's always bounced back. He's always come out better and stronger. That's…" He couldn't help glancing backwards, toward the tech nest that held KITT's unconscious mind. "That's one of the reasons why I love him so damned much." He looked at Bonnie again, feeling fiery determination light up his own gaze. "Are you telling me you really think that teaching him what pleasure is would throw him completely off the beam?" 

For a long moment she simply gazed back at him, the heat in her own eyes fading to a more calculating quality. "You say you love him." 

"I'd die for him," Michael said instantly. 

"That's not the same thing." 

He threw up his hands in frustration, turning away from her, back toward KITT. "Okay, fine, if you really need to hear it again… I love him! I really love him. And I'm not going to let you —" 

"What kind of love are we talking about?" The words were nearly clinical. "The love of a law enforcement officer for his partner? The love of a teacher for his student?"  

Now staring at KITT's temporary home, Michael felt his throat tightening. "If he were human, I'd give him everything, including my life if he'd have me." 

"So, you love him in a romantic sense? In a sexual sense?" He heard her take a couple of steps closer around the car's hood, and a less hectoring note entered her voice. "Michael… I'm trying to understand. I have to figure out if what you're doing is going to damage him, now or later." 

He closed his eyes, feeling like he was flaying himself open to the backbone, spreading open his chest to expose his beating heart to attack. "All of the above," he managed to choke out, barely above a whisper. Turning, he fixed her with a glare full of defiance. "And I'd never do anything to cause him a second's harm. Bonnie, you've got to believe me! This was his choice as much as it was mine — I made damned sure of that." 

"During your first encounter you took advantage of the feedback field flux to nearly overload his systems!" 

"Because he told me he enjoyed it." He drew another deep breath, trying to banish that lingering sensation of being so terribly exposed as the awareness of what she must have seen kept sinking in deeper and deeper. "And if you read his memories, you know that _he_ was the one who approached me the second time — and that he took control of the situation. I never would have continued if he hadn't taken that step." 

After a couple of heartbeats Bonnie sighed, reaching up to run one hand through her long brown hair as she shifted her troubled gaze to the car body between them. "That's something I wouldn't have expected, and that I still can't understand." 

"Bonnie…" He took a cautious step back toward her, extending his right hand slightly. When she looked up at him again he continued with conviction: "KITT's gotten more complex the longer he's been alive. If you're saying that you don't understand why he did what he did, imagine how I feel." He cracked a small smile, which she did not mirror. "But he did it, and I can tell you one thing for sure: I've never stopped checking that he's doing this with me because he _wants_ to, not because he _has_ to." 

"You know I love him too." 

For a couple of seconds he just stared at her, his mouth falling open.  

"Not quite the same way you do," Bonnie continued, her brown eyes meeting his with unblinking intensity. "Much more the way a mother loves her child. It's more… complicated than that, but that's the gist of it. I came back to the Foundation because being apart from him was unbearable: there were many nights when I couldn't sleep, thinking about him out on the road with you, throwing himself in between you and danger, and coming back in pieces. I came back because he needs me, and believe me, I'd do anything to protect him — including wipe his memory clean, if I thought it was necessary."

 "I won't let you do it." His pulse was throbbing red-hot under the line of his jaw. "I won't let you take him away from me." 

She gazed at him for another second before something in her gaze changed — a turning, almost a yielding, although she still looked capable of tearing him apart. "But you mean what you're saying. You love him… that way." 

"He's everything to me," Michael responded without hesitation. "And I'd kill myself before I'd let him come to any harm, from anyone — including me." 

The battlements of her shoulders cracked, the threatening line of her throat softening. She looked down at the robotic car and laid her hand on the sharp curve at the edge of its ebony hood. For a long span of seconds she said nothing, the wheels in her brilliant mind almost visibly turning at top speed, but Michael forced himself to remain silent, knowing that whatever she decided now would likely prove impossible to change. 

At last she looked up at him again. "I believe you."

The wave of relief nearly made his head swim. "Bonnie —" 

"That you care for him that deeply. Not necessarily that it's a good thing. I'm going to have to monitor the situation closely —" 

Reality came crashing in on his euphoria. "Please, don't tell me you're going to watch us every time we make love." 

She shook her head, a trace of a smile finally cracking through. "I'll have KITT mark those data packets with a unique tracer, so I can keep clear of them — and so that I can check his process flow history occasionally, to make sure he remains stable." 

"We've been doing this for nearly four months. Don't you think that's enough of a track record?" 

The curve of her lips increased. "I promise I'll just examine the process flow records, not his experiential data matrixes." 

Michael inclined his head warily. "I'm not sure what that means, but I'm going to take it as a good thing." 

"It's like reading someone's vital signs during an event instead of watching a full video recording." 

"Ah." He swallowed. " _Definitely_ a good thing." 

She held up a hand, her face growing stern again. "And, I'm going to give you a list of behavioural warning signs to watch out for." 

He nodded at once. "Fine by me." 

"Don't think this lets you completely off the hook," Bonnie warned. "I'll be keeping an eye on you both — I'm just willing to see how well KITT adapts in the long term. At the first sign of critical instability I'm pulling the plug, and to hell with what Devon says. Nothing, and I mean _nothing_ , is more important to me than KITT's well-being." 

Michael couldn't help smiling again. "Bonnie, believe me, we're on completely the same page." He approached her to stand on the other side of the car and to lay his right hand on the hood in a gesture that mirrored her stance, their reflections shining together in the sea of glossy blackness. "I'll take care of him, and I won't let him fall — I promise." 

"You'd better not," she stated with a hint of the old teasing, and Michael closed his eyes briefly, feeling the last piece of the shelter that he and KITT depended upon click back into place. A set of three people who loved each other, and a uniquely remarkable AI the glue that bound them into a working unit… as long as that connection remained, they could face absolutely anything — together.   

THE END


End file.
